November 2008
Who?: You won't believe what Zola Budd,42, looks like today. Remember her barefoot in the Olympics at 18 and colliding with Mary Decker in the 3000m at the L.A. coliseum in 1984? She dropped back in the race after she heard the booing because she "didn't want to be booed on the Olympic stand". She is living in South Carolina, has a daughter and twin sons, and is running on the US pro road race circuit for the next 2 years, looking for a sub 2:50 at NY marathon: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/sports/olympics/27budd.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin --- At the big collegiate Pre-Nationals XC meet in Terre Haute, IN on Oct. 18 Sam Chelanga of Liberty U. won in a course record by 5 seconds 22:52 for 8K. He won by 40 seconds. Old record was by last year's NCAA champ Josh McDougal also of Liberty University. Stanford won in part from their 3-4 finish of Heath and Derrick (a freshman). Freshman German Fernandez (set the HS NR for the mile and 2 mile last spring) ran 23:34 in the open race, the 3rd fastest time of the day --- At the Pac-10 XC Championships Oregon won with 28 points led by Olympian Galen Rupp's 37 second victory. Oregon had 6 of the top 12 finishers. Stanford was 2nd with 47 points. University of Washington took the top 6 places in the women's race, the first team ever to score 15 points in the Pac-10 Championships. Freshman Kendra Schaaf from Canada won by 30 seconds. Stanford had won the previous 12 championships in a row --- Geb earned $130,000 for his recent sub 2:04 WR marathon. His splits were 1:02:05 - 1:01:54. Stud! --- Marion Jones got out of prison and went on Oprah to say she never knew she was taking steroids, she "thought they were supplements"
See what Stanford XC Invitational winner Scott Bauhs looks like here: http://www.flotrack.org/blogs/blogger/xcrun04/4498-3-weeks-300-miles --- Willis beat Lagat by one tenth of a second at NY's 5th Ave Mile in September --- T&Fnews named CA's German Fernandez as its boys HS track athlete of the year, in part because he took down the almost 30 year old national HS 2 mile record (8:34.4, run an hour after a 4:01 mile). His goal? "An Olympic Gold Medal" and a 13:35 5K as a freshman. Jordan Hasay won the girls HS title, the first distance runner since Kim Mortensen 1996. She was rated #1 in the US in the Mile (4:38.06 mile, 4:14.5 1500) and the 2-Mile (9:55.57) --- Rob Finnerty had the fastest HS mile time for 08, 4:01.09. Ashley Brasovan, last year's Foot Locker XC champion, has the fastest HS 5000m time of 08 with 16:19 (she would have lapped you twice) --- Geb's (age 35) WR marathon (2:03:59) was his 26th WR. His 10K split was 29:14, then a 29:37, 1:01:05 at the half --- Olympic marathon champ Constantina Dita was 4th at Chicago. Cheruiyot won in 2:06:25 on a hot day --- USATF faces a board restructuring (to reduce the 29 member board), a new CEO, Doug Logan replacing Craig Masback, and a new President --- 18 year old Pamela Jelimo of Kenya, who won all of her 800m races in 08 including gold in Beijing, was an 'unknown' in 07, was number 78 in Africa in 07 in the 200m and number 51 in the 400m with a 54.9. Her PR came after the Olympics in Zurich where she ran 1:54.01, 56.1-57.9
FIRST EVER SANTA BARBARA JHS XC CHAMPIONSHIPS ELINGS PARK OCT. 30
Forty three 8th and 9th graders from 3 of our 4 Junior High Schools competed on a tough 3200m XC course at Elings Park that went around the lower softball fields once, the upper soccer fields twice, up and down the road to the flagpole with 2 loops of Singleton Pavilion thrown in. I had been coaching the La Cumbre team once a week for 2 months as Club West was helping the JHS after school sports program (run by SB City Parks and Rec). Robin Paulsen coached the Goleta Valley kids and Jenny Kenyon coached at La Colina, we tried but could not encourage any runners at SB JHS. My La Cumbre XC team was the soccer team who once a week ran XC workouts with me around the school. We had two natural runners who I was sure would take 1-2 in the championships. Jaime was a lanky guy who played many years of soccer and liked to push himself (not every kid does) and he had won both our dual practice meets by staying in the lead then kicking the last 100m. We also had big Josh, the tallest most muscular kid in the race, used to being the best in all sports, but who would go out too fast then die. We also had Ricardo, the shortest guy on the team, he reminded me of me as a kid, no height but all heart, but 2 days before the race he couldn't run from a hamstring pull. La Cumbre had 18 boys and 4 girls at the meet, the largest team.
At 4PM the gun went off and everybody went out too fast. After the first big loop big Josh, ignoring coach's pre-race advice, had the big lead, but up the hill to the upper field he lumbered and Jaime and a new kid from La Colina, Nate Fung, passed him. Nate and Jaime then ran side by side around the upper field, pushing eachother, gaining distance from the field. Up the steep hill and around the pavilion the two still ran side by side, but when they returned from the flagpole Nate was all alone. Later we learned Jaime did not know the course and wasn't sure how far it was to go, and he just had to walk to get air. When you are near exhaustion, and not sure of the course, it is really tough. When I saw him joggin in 2nd place he had a panicked look on his face. I was lucky to be at that spot and I told him to catch his breath then go again, he was still in 2nd place, with Josh and the field now catching up fast. In 4th was Ryan, the tough little kid from La Colina, followed by Ricardo and Joseph from La Cumbre.
Over the last part of the race Nate extended his lead and won by an incredible 35 seconds in 12:14. It was a dominating performance by this inexperienced and very talented young runner. Josh came on strong and finished 2nd in 12:49. There was a race for 3rd as Jaime just held off Ryan by 2 seconds, 12:56 to 12:58. Ricardo and Joseph ran well together and took 5th and 6th. Thanks to Julio in 9th La Cumbre took the boys team title! We were hooting and hollering when they announced the winner and the kids took turns holding the team trophy above their heads like they do at Wimbledon and the Stanley Cup. For girls Goleta Valley won easily led by Lauren von Valkenburg's 13:34, 6th place overall (Lauren keeps a training diary and runs a lot). Everyone enjoyed McConnell's Cookies and Cream ice cream after the race and before the awards. The next day, La Cumbre school officials put their team trophy, certificate and a photo montage of the runners in the trophy case next to their main office.
Jordan Hasay Update
Mt. Sac Oct 25 http://www.sanluisobispo.com/sports/story/508824.html
Jordan Hasay, who first set a national 5K road record at McConnell's when she was 12 (17:06), now 5'3.5", 105 pounds and age 17 as of Sept. 21, won the girls individual sweepstakes race for the fourth consecutive year. Hasay lowered her three-mile course best time of last season by 15 seconds, winning in a time of 16 minutes, 27 seconds. Her time is the second fastest time ever posted at Mt. Sac, trailing only Ukiah High's Amber Trotter, 16:16 in 2001. Jordan's first mile was in 5:09, but then San Clemente senior Alex Dunne closed to within 4 seconds at the 2-mile in 11:15. Dunne then faded and Jordon won by 21 seconds. After the finish, Hasay was mobbed by fans and competitors. The video of her race is here: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234116/76476. A video showing fellow HS runners trying to get autographs just after her finish; her dad herds her away at the end: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234116/76416-jordan-mania A funny video showing one HS age guy trying to ask her to Disneyland during the post race melee: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234116/76402-ask-jordan-to-disney-land An interview with her after the race here: http://www.dyestatcal.com/?pg=dyestatcal2008-XCountry-News-October-30-Jordan-Hasay-AOW
She was awarded USATF's athlete of the week for her Mt. Sac win: http://www.usatf.org/news/view.aspx?DUID=USATF_2008_10_28_13_12_21
Here is an Oct. 23 KSBY TV transcript about her: http://www.ksby.com/Global/story.asp?S=9231712. Oct. 8 article in the Santa Maria Times is pretty good: http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/2008/10/10/sports/sports98.txt. A guy in Thousand Oaks reserved www.jordanhasay.com and has a single page up for a future fan club site.
She was awarded the Track and Field News HS athlete of the year: http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/asset/special/2008/gAOY.pdf
Jordan has a blog, along with 07 Footlocker winner Ashley Brasovan, at http://www.milesplit.us/articles/19729. Dec. 10th is the Foot Locker XC Nationals. She is quoted: "In college I'm thinking of studying something along the lines of sports medicine/ nutrition. I've already taken two official visits to ASU and Arizona. Next weekend I am visiting Oregon and then the rest of my visits I will take in January". She wants to run the 1500m at the Senior USATF track championships, scheduled for Eugene, OR around the 3rd week of June 09.
By your SBAA running shorter reporter, Kevin Young